teuniac_

It's okay not to know. English is spoken in a lot of different places in different ways. I doubt that in your 40 years you've explored this.

Google Trends shows that it's most popular in Malaysia and the Philippines, relative to its use in other countries.

No, that's a welfare state

Autumn's beautiful though. It's just that shorter days and the reason can make it a bit depressing.

Taiwan is a full democracy, not a flawed one. At least according to the widely respected Economist Democracy Index.

Taiwan is more democratic than Canada and Germany. And a lot more than the US, but that's not surprising.

I feel the same way. She is also way too well known for any expert to be fooled into thinking it's going to be a serious interview

European here.

Have never shot anyone. Not owning a gun means that I'll probably continue not shooting people. It's a very effective method.

If lions were able to eat predominantly plants and fruits they would do so because it's easier and requires less energy.

If humans were meant to eat meat, we'd have teeth specifically adapted for it and digestive systems designed for omnivorous diets. Oh wait...

Since we're the product of evolution we're not meant to do anything. Evolution is reactive to changing environments. In terms of what our physiology is most suitable for is predominantly hunting and gathering, with a bit of meat from hunting occasionally.

The fact that we have some sharp teeth and can digest meat doesn't mean that we have to consume the enormous amount of meat that we're currently eating. The health department of pretty much every Western Country says that its population eats unhealthy amounts of meat.

death is a part of life, and having meaning in death to provide nutrition for continuation of life is just a reality.

You're missing something pretty important here. Death is part of life is an argument that you'd use to try and justify hunting. Farming also means breeding more animals that will be raised for their meat and killed after a few years.

Globally, 60% of all large mammals are livestock. It's a crazy number and there is nothing natural about this. The killing isn't the root problem, producing/breeding huge numbers of animals is.

Death might be a natural part of the circle of life, but we're artificially starting this circle for many farm animals. If we'd stop doing this at such an insane scale, we wouldn't need to discuss their death (or quality of life)

Importantly, this is something that we choose to do even though we don't have to. The owl has to hunt for mice and isn't able to choose not to. This makes our moral position not comparable to owls or any other animal.

But let's also be reasonable.

Eating cats and dogs is controversial. So is eating sharks or whale. Some diets are unnecessarily harmful. Since we all live on the same planet, that affects others and it makes sense to have an opinion on this.

Outside of the US, it's not controversial to say the average meat intake in the US is too high: for health reasons and for the environment. I think it's okay to judge people when they eat abnormal amounts of meat.

I think it's easier to mess up a vegan diet than a keto one.

People often worry more about vegan diets than other diets. But somehow people's concerns aren't proportional to the risk of messing up your nutrition needs.

It's not about health risks; it's more about their personal feelings. Most people don't like that animals are killed for food, but giving up tasty meat and cheese is tough. Instead of supporting vegans, they question them. This might be because admitting they eat meat just for its taste feels wrong. So, they deflect by questioning veganism. It'd be great if there were more understanding and supportive and less defensiveness about food choices.

I'd be nice to occasionally hear "Good for you! I'm happy that you make choices that are in line with your values!" But alas, most responses tend to be "But aren't you barely allowed to eat anything now!?"

So much time and effort online and on TV is expended arguing against eating plant based food. It's hard not to see through this.

people without any guns

A mob stormed and airports in Russia. Americans may see Europe as an exotic place, but mobs storming airports is pretty rare here.

So are mass shootings. While they happen, they're very rare.

Sorry maybe I sounded a bit harsh. I think we're on line here, but to be sure. I mean that the average voting age in 2006 could be an interesting detail when doing an analysis of the origins the current situation. So would other themes that played a role in the campaign before the election. I remember reading about this that the corruption of the alternative parties was an issue for voters too.

But when it comes to justifying huge numbers of civilian casualties, it's a pretty well established principle that civilians can never directly be held accountable with violence for the actions of their government. So that means that we don't need to engage with arguments about whether voters knew what they were getting into or any specifics about the election. Because doing so would be giving in to your opponent (in a hypothetical debate) and you'd be undermining your own position.

Maybe my points have the same problem. But since people who support the bombings don't seem to care about international law, I felt like these were a good second line of defence.